Chesterman House, Wycliffe House, main outbuilding range and boundary walls, Burngreave, Sheffield

Summary

Former receiving house complex for the scattered homes for children headquarters, 1894, by C J Innocent. Brick laid in English Bond with moulded-brick and sandstone dressings (some painted), pitched slate roofs, brick chimneystacks. Mainly 2-3 storeys plus basements. Single-storey outbuilding range.

Description

PLAN: the site lies along the north side of an access drive lying parallel with Herries Road, which then curves around the western edge of the buildings and heads north to the main hospital buildings.

The site consists of a superintendent's residence (now known as Chesterman House) at the west end, an attached receiving house/administration block (now known as Wycliffe House) comprised of various ranges to the centre of the site, and a detached T-shaped range of outbuildings (former clothes store, wash house, laundry and disinfecting house) to the east. Two small altered outbuildings also lie to the north of Chesterman House and the main outbuilding range respectively; these two outbuildings are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing.

There is a substantial change in ground level from west to east and north to south with the higher ground being on the west and north sides of the site. The superintendent's house is consequently set upon raised ground, and as a result incorporates a lower-ground floor level beneath the house (containing the headquarters' principal stores) on the south side that forms part of the ground floor of Wycliffe House internally.

EXTERIOR: all the buildings retain their original sash windows, which are mainly multipaned, although a small number of plate-glass sashes exist. The doors and windows have sandstone lintels, and the majority of windows also have painted-stone sills.

CHESTERMAN HOUSE: the former superintendent's residence is domestic in character and takes the form of a small villa of 2-storeys plus basement and attic (the additional lower-ground floor level is only accessible from the exterior on the south side and internally from Wycliffe House). Brick stringcourses incorporating dentil bands exist between the floor levels, and an additional raised brick band is set two-thirds up the first-floor windows. A brick and sandstone eaves cornice exists to the roofline. The house's windows are boarded over on the west and north elevations. A number of the sash windows are paired and are divided by a central mullion

Front (west) elevation: the house's 3-bay principal elevation faces west and is stepped with a gabled bay to the left with a canted bay window to the ground floor incorporating a dentil cornice, and tall paired windows to the first floor and attic. The centre bay is set back slightly to the right and incorporates the house's main entrance, which consists of a doorway with a 6-panel door and a painted-stone round-arched head incorporating a keystone and a plain fanlight. A single window exists to the first floor above, and single windows light both floors of the bay's south return. The right bay is stepped back again and is lit by a single window on each floor.

North elevation: on this elevation paired windows exist to the left of the ground floor with two slender windows to the right. To the first floor the window arrangement is identical, although one of the paired windows has been partly converted into a doorway, which leads onto a late-C20 fire-escape stair that also wraps around to the east elevation's attic level. Attached to the left (east) end is a scullery projection with a pyramidal roof and a doorway with a boarded-over door. The scullery appears as single-storey on this side. However, when viewed from the east it can be seen that it is actually 2-storeys in height due to the much lower ground level on this side, and is also 2-bays wide; the bay to the left incorporating a 12-over-12 sash stair window and forming part of Wycliffe House internally. A small altered outbuilding to the north is excluded from the Listing.

South elevation: the south elevation is formed of a gabled bay that has two plate-glass sash windows to the ground floor and paired windows to the first floor and attic with their original multipaned sashes. Raised-brick detailing exists to the gable. Due to the change in ground level there is a lower-ground floor level on this side, which has a small mid-late C20 single-storey extension with a lean-to corrugated roof attached in front, which is located on the site of a glasshouse depicted on early OS maps. Attached to the right (east) at ground and lower-ground floor levels are 11-bays forming Wycliffe House (described below).

East (rear) elevation: the rear elevation of Chesterman House is partly hidden by 2-storey ranges that form part of Wycliffe House. Paired stair windows light the two upper half-landings of the house's main stair; the lower windows incorporate Art Nouveau-style rose-patterned stained glass. A gabled bay to the right has paired windows to the attic level, one of which has been partly converted into a doorway to access the late-C20 fire escape that wraps around and down the north elevation. Like the south elevation there is also a substantial change in ground level on this side and there is consequently a lower-ground floor level. Projecting eastwards from the left side of the elevation is a 2-storey range forming part of Wycliffe House and projecting from the right side is the 2-storey 2-bay hipped-roof scullery projection described above, the left bay and entire lower-ground floor of which forms part of Wycliffe House internally.

WYCLIFFE HOUSE: due to the site's change in ground level the ground floor of Wycliffe House is level with the lower-ground floor of Chesterman House, and the first floor is level with the ground floor of Chesterman House. Wycliffe House, which is mainly of 2-storeys plus basement, maintains the stringcourse, dentil band and raised brick banding detailing of Chesterman House.

Front (south) elevation: the 11-bay front range of Wycliffe House faces south with a hipped-roofed single-storey entrance projection set to the far left of the ground floor with paired sash windows to the front wall and entrance doors (boarded over externally) to each side with tripartite overlights. Rising above and behind the entrance on the main wall face is a wall stack, the uppermost part of which has been rebuilt, and further to the right (east) on the roofline is a ridge stack. Windows of varying size exist to the 5-bays to the right, including two that have been reduced in height. Attached to the east side of the entrance projection and running eastwards before turning north-eastwards to join with the main building is a low stepped brick wall surmounted by cast-iron railings. The 5-bays to the far right of the elevation project forward slightly and have windows to the two outer bays on each floor and a central stair window, beneath which is a large inscribed ashlar foundation stone that reads 'THIS STONE WAS LAID BY/ JOHN WYCLIFFE WILSON JP/ CHAIRMAN OF THE/ SHEFFIELD BOARD OF GUARDIANS/ AND ORIGINATOR OF THE ISOLATED OR SCATTERED/ HOMES FOR CHILDREN./ MARCH 3RD 1894.'. Attached to the east end of the elevation is a high brick wall (enclosing the former girls' yard area behind) that connects to the south gable end of the outbuilding range, which has a single window and a catslide roof. The wall then continues further eastwards and then has a north return, which continues for a short distance before terminating.

Rear (north) elevations: projecting northwards from the centre of the front range's rear elevation is a 6-bay 2-storey cross wing with a ridge stack to the south end and a wall stack to the north gable end flanked by slender windows to each floor. The wing's east elevation has two doorways to the centre of the ground floor and windows to the rest of the elevation on both floors. The west elevation is of 4-bays with windows to the first floor and northern end of the ground floor. A tall opening to the northern end of the first floor on this side, which originally provided access from the boys' dormitory on to a cast-iron escape stair that has since been removed, has been blocked-up. Attached to the ground floor of the cross wing's west elevation is an L-shaped single-storey projection that also runs across 3-bays of the rear elevation's western end (the westernmost bay adjacent to Chesterman House has a doorway with a large tripartite overlight and adjacent window) and incorporates windows to all sides and a doorway to the west side. Rising above and behind the projection on the rear elevation of the front range is a truncated wall stack. The 3-bays at the eastern end of the rear elevation include a tall first-floor sash window with a panelled lower section, which forms part of the former girls' dormitory; the window originally led out on to a cast-iron escape stair that has since been removed. A doorway exists to the ground floor, which leads out into a small yard enclosed by high brick walls connecting to the outbuilding range to the east. The yard's north enclosing wall steps up to incorporate a pedestrian entrance (door removed), which originally led into another northern yard area that is believed to have possibly been a boys' yard area, but has since lost its north enclosing wall and is now used for car parking. The front range's east return elevation is gabled and has a central wall stack flanked by slender windows to each floor.

OUTBUILDING RANGE: the main outbuilding range is single-storey in height and is comprised of three principal blocks (containing the former clothes store, wash house, laundry and disinfecting house) arranged in an irregular T-shape with a front elevation facing north. The easternmost block is aligned east-west and has two doorways to the front containing plank and batten doors and three windows to the rear (boarded over). An adjacent block to the west is double-height and is arranged as a cross wing with a doorway containing a plank and batten door and a tall window set to the north gable end. The block projects slightly to the rear and has a window set to the east wall. The westernmost block has an L-shape due to a long cross wing projecting to the rear that incorporates a partly-raised roof with clerestory-style windows. The block has five windows (three with brick segmental-arched heads) and a doorway with a multipaned overlight to the north front, and six windows and a doorway with a multipaned overlight and a ledged and braced door to the east side of the rear wing. The western gable end is lit by two windows and the western elevation of the rear wing is hidden by a small single-storey projection accessible externally (possibly toilets originally). The southern end of the rear wing incorporates a catslide roof on the west side that forms a shelter with an open west side supported by slender cast-iron columns.

A small detached outbuilding to the north of the main outbuilding range is excluded from the Listing.

INTERIOR:

CHESTERMAN HOUSE: internally Chesterman House has floorboard floors. 4-panel doors (some boarded over) survive throughout, along with moulded door and window architraves, deep skirtings and moulded cornicing. Marble fire surrounds with some cast-iron and tile inserts exist to the ground and first floors, although some of the fire surrounds have been damaged and partly removed due to attempted theft. Painted cast-iron fireplaces exist to the attic rooms. Dado and picture rails exist to most areas of the ground and first floors. An entrance vestibule with an inner screen and 3-panel door (all containing patterned etched glass) leads into a central stair hall with rooms off to each side. The main stair, which has a narrow open well, has paired turned balusters, a turned newel post, ramped handrail, and a cut string. The first half-landing window is boarded over internally, but its decorative Art Nouveau rose-patterned stained glass is visible externally. A doorway at the rear of the stair hall leading into Wycliffe House has been boarded up; due to the differences in ground level the doorway accessed the first floor of Wycliffe House. The former kitchen at the rear left of the ground floor contains a large timber fire surround with carved panels and a cast-iron range, built-in cupboards, and a laundry drying rack. The neighbouring scullery has a boarded-up fireplace and contains the remains of late-C20 kitchenette units* (the units are not of special interest). A doorway in the kitchen's west wall provides access to the basement stair. The doorway also originally provided access into a small store adjacent to the stair, but a late-C20 partition wall*, which is not of special interest, has been inserted and the store converted into a toilet that is accessed off the central hallway. Both the first floor and attic landings have late-C20 glazed partitions* that are not of special interest and have been inserted behind the stair balustrade for fire safety, which has led to the loss of some of the balusters. The basement contains a large sandstone butcher's block supported on low painted-brick walls.

WYCLIFFE HOUSE: internally the original layout remains intact and there does not appear to be any later partitioning. There are quarry-tile and floorboard floors (some hidden under modern vinyl coverings), and painted-over glazed-tile dados in the corridors and stair wells. 4-panel doors (some boarded over) survive throughout, although a small number have been replaced by modern fire doors. Moulded door and window architraves also survive, and some of the rooms and corridors have painted cast-iron ventilators. A small number of fireplaces survive, but most have been removed; chimneybreasts survive throughout. Some of the rooms have modern inserted suspended ceilings*, which are not of special interest. The building contains three sandstone stairs, all with painted cast-iron stick balusters and later tread coverings; those to the eastern end of the front range and the rear wing were for the separate use of the girls and boys respectively. The stair for committee members and visitors is located off the entrance hall and unlike the other two stairs, it has alternate stick and barley-twist balusters and a timber handrail, and has a large inscribed marble plaque on the half landing set within a carved painted surround that commemorates the construction of the building, the three cottages and children's hospital that constituted the headquarters for the isolated children's homes and the people involved.

The main entrance hall appears to have possibly formed a waiting room originally as it has a corner fireplace (now boarded over). It leads through into a split-level stair hall containing the committee members/visitors' stair at the rear. Off to the left of the stair hall are the principal stores, which are located at the western end of the ground floor (underneath Chesterman House) and were originally used to store goods and food that were supplied to all the scattered homes. The stores consist of five rooms plus the later extension fronting the driveway alongside Herries Road. All have stone-flag and concrete floors and are interconnected through large arched openings and open doorways; the three largest rooms are double height. A doorway and stair in the eastern wall of the stores provides access into the basement underneath Wycliffe House, which consists of a corridor with two rooms off to the south side, one of which was possibly a kitchen originally. The basement retains a partly-glazed timber screen and multipaned door in the corridor. Off to the right of the main stair hall is a T-shaped corridor that accesses the front and rear ranges with a short stub to reach the eastern end of the front range; the layout is replicated on the first floor. Two rooms to the ground-floor centre of the front range (one of which has arched alcoves flanking a chimneybreast) and a room in the rear range are believed to have probably originally been medical officers' and examination rooms, and possibly a sitting room. The single-storey rear projections contain storage facilities, some of which have been modernised and are not of special interest. Large ground-floor rooms at the eastern end of the front range and the northern end of the rear range are believed to have probably been the girl's and boy's day rooms respectively, with the first-floor rooms above them being the dormitories. The girl's day room retains a painted-timber fire surround with a boarded-over opening, and a picture rail; it is unclear if a corresponding picture rail survives in the boy's day room due to the presence of an inserted suspended ceiling* (the suspended ceiling is not of special interest), but its fireplace has been removed. The dormitories are plain; that to the eastern end of the front range has an inserted suspended ceiling* and wall-mounted cabling concealment panels for modern computer equipment* that are not of special interest. A large first-floor room to the centre of the front range with deep moulded cornicing, picture rail, and an early glazed partition screen is believed to have originally been the committee room. The tie beams of two roof trusses are just visible beneath the ceiling, which appears to be original, and are supported by decorative brackets on carved corbels. A further room at the head of the committee members' stair is believed to have been the superintendent's office.

OUTBUILDING RANGE: internally the various blocks comprising the main outbuilding range are interconnected via doorways located in the side walls. All the blocks have painted-brick walls. The L-shaped block at the western end is open-plan and has parquet and floorboard floors and king-post roof trusses. Adjacent to the doorway connecting into the central block is an additional doorway set above the ground level in the form of a taking-in door. The central block contains a late-C20 kitchenette*, a partition wall* and an inserted suspended ceiling* that are not of special interest. The eastern block is separated into two rooms internally by a brick dividing wall. Both rooms have stone-flag floors and the larger eastern room incorporates a drainage channel.

EXCLUSIONS:

* Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

Following the construction of the Sheffield Union Workhouse in 1878-1881 the Sheffield Guardians turned their attention to establishing the most appropriate way to care for the city's pauper children. In 1888 forty children were placed in private homes in a 'boarding-out' scheme (akin to modern-day fostering). A new scheme of care was then developed that was subsequently widely adopted by other unions and was intended to ensure that no child above the age of three entered the workhouse. The 'isolated homes/scattered homes' system was devised in 1893 by John Wycliffe Wilson, Chairman of the Sheffield Board of Guardians, and placed small groups of children in ordinary houses scattered around Sheffield's suburbs, under the care of a foster-parent employed by the Union. Unlike in cottage home sites, which usually had their own school, the children in the scattered homes attended local Board schools, as well as churches, chapels and Sunday schools, and mixed with other children in the neighbourhood. The homes were carefully distributed around the city so that there were never more than 30 scattered children attending a single school. The scheme's first homes opened in October 1893 and by 1911 there were 30.

Chesterman House, Wycliffe House and their associated outbuildings were constructed in 1894 as the headquarters receiving house/administrative complex for the isolated children's homes. The receiving house complex was designed by C J Innocent of Sheffield with Messrs George Longden and Son of Neepsend as contractors, and George Malpas as clerk of works, and was built on the Goddard Hall estate at the southern edge of what is now the Northern General Hospital site (originally Sheffield Union Workhouse). The foundation stone was laid on 3 March 1894 by John Wycliffe Wilson JP, and the receiving house was opened on 24 November 1894 by Sir Walter Foster MP. The completion of the headquarters was featured in The Builder and Building News.

The receiving house provided an administrative base and could also accommodate up to twenty new arrivals, as well as a superintendent. Upon arrival the children would receive a bath, a haircut, and a medical inspection. They would then be sent to one of the scattered homes, or stay at the headquarters until it was suitable for them to go to a scattered home.

The receiving house (now known as Wycliffe House) contained a waiting room, medical officers' and examination rooms, sitting rooms for the foster parents, a kitchen, separate day rooms for the boys and girls, lavatories, bathrooms and store rooms. There were separate staircases and dormitories for the boys and girls, a bedroom for the foster parents, and a superintendent's office and a committee room on the first floor. A separate superintendent's residence (now known as Chesterman House) was also provided. Stores on the lower-ground floor beneath the superintendent's residence held goods and food that were used to supply all the homes, and outbuildings included a clothes store, washhouse, laundry and disinfecting house.

Also forming part of the headquarters, and constructed at the same time as the receiving house complex on land to the west, were three detached cottages used to house children who were frequently in or out of the system or whose behaviour required close attention, and a children's hospital. The cottages were demolished in the late-C20 and the children's hospital has now been partially demolished and the remainder subsumed into the main hospital buildings of Northern General Hospital.

Chesterman House has been disused for over 15 years. Wycliffe House has most recently been in use as offices and at the time of writing (2015) is in the final stages of being vacated. The main outbuildings are currently being used as stores.

Charles John Innocent (1839-1901) was architect and surveyor to the Sheffield School Board from 1871-1880, and designed many of the city's early board schools in conjunction with his partner Thomas Brown who died in 1881. C J Innocent has six known Listed buildings to his name (all in Sheffield), including the former Heeley Board School (1890, Grade II), Crookesmoor Middle School (1874 with additions of 1881 & 1887, Grade II), and Pye Bank School (1875, extended 1884, Grade II).

Reasons for Listing

Chesterman House, Wycliffe House, the main outbuilding range and boundary walls are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Historic interest: as the headquarters and organisational hub of the first scattered home system in the country the buildings have a unique place in the history and development of social welfare in Britain, illustrating this enlightened approach to welfare provision that has greatly influenced and shaped modern-day care practices;
* Architectural interest: the external elevations are enlivened by moulded brick and sandstone dressings, and there is a clear architectural distinction between the institutional element of the complex (Wycliffe House) and the domestic character of the superintendent's residence (Chesterman House), with the latter appearing more like a villa;
* Degree of survival: the buildings are little altered both externally and internally, and original features survive throughout;
* Planning and evidence of original function: the original internal arrangements survive intact and the original functionality of spaces remains clearly legible, from the committee room with its more detailed treatment and ceiling decoration, to the large open-plan boys and girls' day rooms and dormitories, and the vast principal stores that stored goods destined for all the scattered homes;
* Architect: the buildings were designed by the notable Sheffield architect Charles John Innocent and are illustrative of his distinguished work in providing buildings for the Sheffield School Board and the Sheffield Board of Guardians in the fields of education and welfare.

External Links

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